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The government did not have such power
over us when it could send men to the stake,
as it does now when it can send
them to elementary school.
~ G K Chesterton
(1874-1936)
Over the weekend, I was reviewing an old book which contained an updated commentary on Machiavelli’s Prince. An old friend, Angelo Codevilla, was the editor. He made striking comments as to the degree to which America had adopted Machiavellian thought.
He says in the Editor’s Introduction:
Even in the United States, whose founding document cites "the laws of nature and nature’s God," there is near unanimity among graduates of the top schools that any mention of natural law is subversive.
Francis Bacon praised Machiavelli for bringing the "stars of the heavens" down into humanity. Like Prometheus (or the Serpent), Machiavelli sought to give man a power that heretofore had belonged to God alone.
Much modern philosophy, following Machiavelli’s led, is founded on the attempt to close mankind’s window on the supernatural.
On the level of political thought, the notion that people can create their own values long ago passed from heresy through controversy and into orthodoxy.
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